Jairus overcame the obstacle of pride to put his faith in Jesus to heal his little girl. As Jesus heads towards Jairus’ house, another faith encounter is happening…and it has its own obstacle:

Mark 5: 24 Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him.25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.28 For she thought to herself, "If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed."29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Notice that this woman didn’t wait till ‘she felt like it’ to go see Jesus. Nope, she got to the end of her rope because nothing else worked and then one day she saw Jesus and reached out in faith. She had to overcome the obstacle of her suffering. Surely she didn’t feel well.

Sometimes, in our house, one of us will have a headache yet wait to go take some ibuprofen because we don’t feel like getting up to do it. I have been guilty of not wanting to go to the doctor because I don’t feel well (and because I’m stubborn). Suffering and pain can certainly keep us from standing in faith which can keep us from Jesus…who is the cure for suffering.

Have you ever delayed a decision in your life because of pain or suffering? Have you ever held back faith because of how you felt? Have you ever felt too bad to go to the Doc? This is a real obstacle to overcome.